Impact of wildfires on regional ozone and PM2.5: Considering the light absorption of Brown carbon

Choi, Minsu; Zhang, Jie; Zhang, Yuwei; Fan, Jiwen; Li, Xinghua; Ying, Qi

doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2023.120196

Impact of wildfires on regional ozone and PM_2.5: Considering the light absorption of Brown carbon

Journal Article · Thu Nov 09 00:00:00 EST 2023 · Atmospheric Environment (1994)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2023.120196· OSTI ID:2282600

Choi, Minsu ^[1]; Zhang, Jie ^[1]; ^[2]; Fan, Jiwen ^[3]; ^[4]; ^[1]

Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX (United States)
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Beihang University, Beijing, (China)

The influence of wildfire brown carbon (BrC) in moderating the formation of O₃ and fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) due to its absorption of ultraviolet (UV) radiation is, for the first time, investigated using a modified community multiscale air quality (CMAQ) model. The wavelength-dependent imaginary refractive index of the organic carbon from wildfires, which are needed by the CMAQ model for its inline photolysis rate calculation, are generated experimentally from wood burning aerosols from a combustion chamber. On high emission days of the Bastrop County Complex fire in Texas in early September 2011, BrC UV absorption reduces the daytime average NO₂ photolysis rate by up to 38% in the core region of the wildfire plume compared to the base scenario that does not consider BrC absorption. Consequently, O₃ production in the smoke plume is suppressed compared to the base scenario due to reduced HO_x radical concentrations. Further, in the core region, the predicted O₃ increase due to wildfire reaches as high as 47–123 ppb without considering BrC absorption, the predicted increase of O₃ is 5–15% lower when BrC absorption is considered. Similarly, considering the BrC UV absorption leads to approximately 1% (or ~2–3 µgm^-3) lower estimation of the wildfire emissions’ impact on total PM_2.5. This change is small because secondary aerosols, which are the components affected by BrC absorption, only account for a small fraction of the total PM_2.5 in wildfire impacted regions in this study. In addition, our study shows that assumptions about aerosol mixing state (core-shell vs. homogeneous) in the inline photolysis rate calculation would not significantly affect out assessment of the impact of wildfire BrC light absorption on O₃ and PM_2.5.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC); USDOE Office of Science (SC); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-06CH11357; AC05-76RL01830

OSTI ID:: 2282600

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 2475087

Report Number(s):: PNNL-SA--194189

Journal Information:: Atmospheric Environment (1994), Journal Name: Atmospheric Environment (1994) Vol. 316; ISSN 1352-2310

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Impact of wildfires on regional ozone and PM2.5: Considering the light absorption of Brown carbon

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Impact of wildfires on regional ozone and PM_2.5: Considering the light absorption of Brown carbon